Hope you had a good week.
Since I last wrote my columns on the Kingdom of Heaven being about righteousness, peace and joy-my righteousness being secure because of the finished work on the cross for me by Jesus and my peace and joy not dependent on circumstances. This has been put to the test, again and again. With us experiencing 90mm of rain on Thursday night, through our severely hail damaged roof. Also fighting with contractors and many more irritating disappointing stressful happenings!
I began to wonder if I was loosing it and began to question whether I really was at peace and as for the joy
But in talking to friends still living under a mixture of grace and law, I realized that a comment I'd written down by J C Wheeler is true, "Now that I know Christ (And particularly viewed from a grace perspective), I'm happier now when I'm sad, than I was before when I was glad!
For me the best part of being free and secure in God's love is that I'm not so self centred anymore. Before so much of my time and energy centred on ME. Am I good enough, Am I doing enough, Is God punishing me, Is God correcting me, Is the devil tempting and testing me? You see me, me, me, me, and ME!
Know that I know that the work on the cross is finished and complete, my thoughts are centred more and more on God and His ways, His voice and His love. I want to please Him; I desire to know Him more and more. I spend my days in His presence more and more just for the pleasure of it. I don't avoid Him because I fear His rejection, His correction and His displeasure.
The Message Bible puts it this way in Romans 8:6-9 Those who trust in God's action in them find that God's Spirit in them-living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us into the open, into a spacious free life. Focusing on self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what He is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored. But if God Himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of Him.
Other by products of this freedom and security in His love, in my life, is the over flowing love I experience for people and I'm able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in a much more intimate way-exciting stuff! But more about that next week.
Do any of you have similar experiences? Please let me know.
Lots of love
Louisa.
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